When she appeared in court on Thursday, LaQuanda Millington was slumped in her wheelchair, her body contorted and her hands and feet wrapped in heavy bandages.

Her speech was slurred. Her eyes were glazed. And she was wearing a diaper because she can no longer control her bladder.

Millington's family says the Pompano Beach woman is brain-damaged, and they blame the medical staff in the Broward County jail system.

Millington, 29, had an allergic reaction after she was given the wrong medicine in jail, the family said, and she has languished there for at least two weeks, seriously ill, without proper care or treatment.

"They tormented my child so badly," said Millington's mother, Vivian Favors. "They tried to hide it and say nothing is wrong with her."

After listening to the family, Broward Circuit Judge Barry Goldstein ordered the Sheriff's Office to allow Millington to be taken to an outside doctor to be examined.

"It does not appear she is faking," the judge said. "I have been fooled before, but it does not appear she is faking."

The Sheriff's Office, which operates the jails, isn't so sure. Deputies took Millington to a hospital earlier, but she was dismissed after six days.

"The physicians at the hospital determined that she did not have to be hospitalized," sheriff's spokesman Jim Leljedal said.

Officials at Prison Health Services, the company hired to provide health care in Broward's jails, referred all questions to Vice President Larry Rothenberger, who did not return phone messages left with his staff.

The accusations are the most recent in a stream of complaints against Prison Health Services.

A recent report, ordered as part of an ongoing federal lawsuit over jail conditions, found widespread problems with jail health care.

Inmates repeatedly had to wait for days to see even a nurse because there are too few doctors and nurses for the 4,500-inmate jail system, the report said. And inmates' requests for help are frequently lost.

Worse, some jails lack needed emergency equipment, and controls over emergency medications are lax, according to the report by Dr. Charles Rosenberg, of Coral Gables, who inspected the jail system and medical records.

The pattern of problems suggests "deliberate indifference" to the health needs of inmates, Rosenberg wrote.

"Mr. Rosenberg basically wants a doctor for every inmate, but that's impractical," Page said. "We are certified by the (American Medical Association). We are certified by the state. As long as we meet those standards, we are fine."

Millington's case became public on Thursday in court.

Fed up with the response of the Sheriff's Office and Prison Health Services, Millington's family asked Goldstein to allow them to take her to another doctor.

"From what I can see, her appearance has changed since the trial," said Goldstein, who presided over Millington's trial earlier this month.

Millington's attorney, Michael Robinson, said he wants to have her examined by a neurologist who may be able to determine whether she was given the wrong medicine.

Robinson, who did not represent Millington at the trial, said Millington appeared in perfect health when he saw her a few months ago.

"Something had to happen between the time that I saw her last and now," he said. "We don't know what is there, whether it's brain damage or what."

Millington was arrested on March 1, 1990, for selling one piece of crack cocaine to an undercover officer, an arrest report shows. She sold the cocaine within 1,000 feet of Lauderhill Middle School, a crime that requires a mandatory three-year prison term.

Millington was convicted by a jury on Aug. 2. Her sentencing has been postponed until next month.

Family members said that about two weeks ago, Millington asked for Tylenol for a headache. She is allergic to regular aspirin, Favors said.

Instead of Tylenol, a nurse gave her several capsules of Motrin. Although it does not contain aspirin, Motrin contains a warning for people who are aspirin-sensitive.

Millington reacted so violently that she had seizures and may have suffered a stroke, Favors said. After the seizure, nurses poked Millington with a safety pin because they thought she was faking, Favors said.

She was taken to North Broward Medical Center in Pompano Beach on Aug. 16, Leljedal said. On Aug. 22, she was sent back to jail, he said.

"I would not state nor infer that this incident occurred as alleged by Miss Millington," Page said. "Nor would I allege or infer that the alleged injuries she described were sustained.